HBR Guide to Coaching Employees

1. Embrace a growth mindset to coach effectively

"Low expectations rarely yield growth and often lead to frustration on both sides."

Shift your thinking. As a coach, adopt a growth mindset that assumes your employees can learn and develop. This mindset is crucial for effective coaching, as it sets the foundation for improvement and allows you to see potential where others might see limitations.

Recognize and overcome biases. Be aware of your own preferences and biases that may hinder your ability to coach effectively. Use frustration as a guide to identify these biases, and seek feedback from trusted colleagues to gain a more objective perspective.

Connect skills to big-picture needs. Help your employees understand how their development aligns with organizational goals. This approach gives them a sense of purpose and motivation to grow. Ask questions to understand their strengths, interests, and struggles, then frame your coaching in a way that connects their personal growth to the company's objectives.

2. Set the stage for peak performance through proper task selection

"The intersection of those three elements creates the magical field in which consistent excellence can happen."

Select the right tasks. Help employees achieve peak performance by selecting tasks that:

• They are good at
• They like to do
• Add value to the project or organization

Create a supportive environment. Foster connections between employees, their tasks, and the organization's mission. This sense of connection boosts loyalty, excitement, and willingness to contribute.

Promote positive connections. Encourage employees to:

• Feel "known" as individuals
• Respond to bids for attention from colleagues
• Express appreciation regularly

3. Build trust through active listening and transparent behavior

"Without trust, employees won't level with you; at best, you'll learn either untruths or partial truths about how they see themselves and their roles within the organization."

Prioritize trust-building. Make establishing trust your top priority as a leader. Without it, employees won't be honest about their goals, weaknesses, or desired growth areas.

Practice active listening. Use the following tactics:

• Pay full attention and maintain comfortable eye contact
• Notice nonverbal cues
• Affirm what you hear
• Reflect emotions without agreeing or disagreeing
• Paraphrase to check understanding
• Summarize key themes

Be transparent in your actions. Model the behavior you expect from your employees. Be open about tough decisions and feedback, providing clear explanations and being receptive to questions.

4. Structure coaching sessions for maximum impact

"Coaching sessions are conversations between you and your employee in which you identify areas for growth, create development plans, perform exercises, and check in on progress."

Agree on outcomes. Start each coaching session by defining clear goals and expectations. Encourage your employee to take part in setting the agenda and identifying what they hope to achieve.

Build baseline understanding. Resist the urge to immediately offer solutions. Instead, ask open-ended questions to gather information and understand the employee's perspective.

Hold up the mirror and reframe. Offer reflections on what you've heard, help the employee see the situation from different angles, and practice or role-play new skills or mindsets.

Ensure actionable close. End each session by having the employee articulate what they've learned and their action items. Agree on follow-up steps and timing.

5. Provide feedback that sticks by avoiding threat responses

"When people are in the grip of a threat response, they're less capable of absorbing and applying feedback."

Cultivate relationships. Build connections with employees over time to reduce the likelihood of triggering a threat response during feedback conversations.

Manage emotions. Express just enough emotion to engage the other person without provoking a hostile or defensive reaction. The right amount depends on the issue, relationship, and context.

Play fair. Focus feedback on your feelings about the behavior, avoiding references to the other person's motives. This approach, known as "staying on your side of the net," reduces the risk of inaccurate assumptions that can provoke defensiveness.

Set the stage. Pay attention to logistical details like timing, duration, physical location, and proximity to create an environment conducive to productive feedback conversations.

6. Tailor coaching to individual learning styles and performance levels

"By tapping into their preferred styles, you will engage them more deeply and motivate them. As a result, they'll make greater—and faster—progress toward their goals."

Identify learning styles. Recognize the nine learning styles:

1. Initiating
2. Experiencing
3. Imagining
4. Reflecting
5. Analyzing
6. Thinking
7. Deciding
8. Acting
9. Balancing

Adapt your approach. Tailor your coaching methods to match each employee's preferred learning style. This customization increases engagement and motivation, leading to faster progress.

Coach different performance levels. Adjust your coaching strategy based on whether an employee is a:

• Star (A player): Devote more time to them, provide genuine praise, and hold them accountable for collegiality
• Steady (B player): Accept them for who they are, recognize their contributions, and provide growth opportunities within their comfort zone
• Struggler (C player): Create a clear improvement plan, give candid real-time feedback, and provide a support network

7. Coach rookie managers to develop emotional maturity

"Putting these unseasoned managers into positions of authority too quickly robs them of the opportunity to develop the emotional competencies that come with time and experience."

Recognize the importance of emotional maturity. Understand that as managers rise in the ranks, soft leadership skills become increasingly crucial for success.

Implement development strategies:

• Deepen 360-degree feedback
• Interrupt the ascent (assign cross-functional roles)
• Act on your commitment to development
• Institutionalize personal development
• Cultivate informal networks (e.g., mentoring)

Be patient and persistent. Developing emotional competencies requires time, practice, and ongoing personal interactions. Resist the temptation to promote promising managers prematurely.

8. Foster self-coaching skills in your employees

"You can be a more effective leader and manager by helping your employees coach themselves."

Promote a growth mindset. Encourage employees to view themselves as works in progress, open to learning and change. Focus feedback on efforts to accomplish goals, not on inherent abilities.

Ask before you advise. When employees seek support, start by asking questions rather than immediately providing answers. This approach helps them tap into their own knowledge and expertise.

Be transparent about coaching techniques. Explain the methods you're using and why, helping employees understand and replicate the process in their own self-coaching efforts.

Encourage informal networks. Support employees in developing relationships outside the company hierarchy, such as through mentoring programs or peer groups, to further their emotional development.

9. Leverage team coaching to minimize process losses and maximize gains

"Coaching is about building teamwork, not about doing the team's work."

Focus on key performance processes. Address three aspects of group interaction that shape team effectiveness:

1. Effort applied to collective work
2. Appropriateness of performance strategies
3. Level of knowledge and skill applied to the work

Time interventions strategically. Provide different types of coaching at specific points in a team's life cycle:

• Beginnings: Motivational coaching to build engagement
• Midpoints: Consultative coaching to reflect on and improve performance strategies
• Endings: Educational coaching to help members learn from their experiences

Adapt coaching to team needs. Be flexible in your approach, recognizing that different teams may require different types of interventions at various stages of their work.

Last updated: May 12, 2025